Because of You Cats & Dogs

I wished I could shop well and go home safely. Ironically, that didn’t happen. In fact, what happened was beyond of my expectation. I know I could be the best planner but what to do? Allah has first known my destiny.

An unexpected incident occurred around 5 something last Tuesday evening. Strictly speaking, I’d been yearning to purchase a VCD of “Cats and Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore” ever since the first time I saw it at the night market near Taman Bukit Bayas Indah, a housing estate. By the way, have you watched the movie? Well… none of my business.

Back then, I used to check with my buddies whether or not they had made a copy of the movie and saved it in their hard disk or laptop – but disappointingly, none did.

To make my dream come true, not to mention my eagerness to watch the English movie, I made up my mind to search the VCD at Mydin Mall, one of the nearest hypermarkets from my house, only 5-minute drive. I asked my kid brother, a 15-year-old teenager, to keep me company.  We went there by motorbike. Don’t worry… I do have a motorcycle license. Huhu.

On the way to the hypermarket, at Jalan Sultan Mahmud, I suddenly noticed something going wrong. My brother told me that the back tyre was leaking. “Oh, NOOOOOOOO!!!” I screamed. Ha! Ha! Kidding. I didn’t even do that. Trust me, I didn’t yet go insane. Aha, so what happened next?

We got off the motorcycle and hauled it by the roadside. I inquired a fruiterer where the nearest workshop was located. According to him, it’s about 1 km away. Shoot! And he suggested that I have the motorcycle repaired there. (Guess what? After all, there’s really a workshop nearby, however it’s too late cos I was already home when I was told. Damn!)

FYI…it’s still early since I got 30 minutes left before the workshop closed. Due to the heavy traffic, I didn’t seem to be in the mood and have no guts to haul the motorcycle especially to cross THE SUPER BUSY ROAD??? Will you?

Hope that’s considered an acceptable reason and I’m telling you I’m not a chickenshit. So, I closed my ears to his advice and didn’t listen to the fruiterer’s suggestion at all. I came out with a more brilliant idea and we finally hauled the motorcycle to a primary school nearby. The school is Sek. Keb. Padang Hiliran and there’s where my Dad works at. What does my father do? A teacher, of course.

Shortly afterwards, I contacted Mom and informed her about the leaky back tyre. She asked my sister to come for help and bring along a tyre pump. What the hell…she whined and wanted to do her business first in the loo. Okay, fine! Even though Mom was asking us to immediately go back home and we might go shopping the next time, I was being a little bit obstinate that evening. To my way of thinking, it’s such a good chance and don’t you remember that opportunity seldom knocks twice?

Aha. Hence, we chose to walk to Mydin Mall. Besides, it’s just within walking distance of our current whereabouts. I believe…a stitch in time saves nine. Why should I postpone my shopping time, then? There, we went straight to the outlet selling VCDs, DVDs and CDs. A variety of movies were being sold there. From Malaywood to Hollywood and Bollywood. I felt slightly upset because the VCD we’re looking for was unavailable. We only found “Cats and Dogs 1”. So, I said to myself, “How about checking out in Giant nearby?” We walked to Giant after that.

It’s raining cats and dogs, all of a sudden. In order to avoid us getting wet in the heavy rain, we stopped by at a Mc Donald’s restaurant. The fast food restaurant is situated right between Mydin Mall and Giant. We took our time out sitting on the chairs to wait for the rain to stop. Alhamdulillah…it stopped after a while. Ah, what a relief! Without delay, we kept on walking to Giant. I felt thankful for finding the outlet in the yellowish hypermarket. I was more than ecstatic as the VCD ‘Cats and Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore’ was right there! Without thinking twice, I bought it. “Mission accomplished!” Hoho.

After shopping, we walked back to the primary school and decided to just take the motorcycle home. We’re lucky because my friends were unexpectedly passing by the road and I grasped the golden opportunity to ask them for a little help. I begged, “Could you please take my brother home?” I myself would ride the motorcycle slowly...err...would I? Yet, I didn’t really want to haul the motorcycle since it would take half an hour to reach home, whereas only does it take 15 minutes to finish watching Upin & Ipin on TV, you know. This isn't 15 minutes but half an hour or maybe more. 

Allah sent assistants but they really aren't angels! I saw my two other brothers come by motorcycle. Then, one of them tried to pump up the back tyre but it just ended in failure. Thus, we took the motorcycle home and were gonna have it repaired the following day. I did it! I did it! The ‘horrible’ incident notwithstanding, I managed to get the VCD I had been yearning for and that night my siblings and I enjoyed watching the movie together.

How's the movie? Enjoyable and that's why I've watched it twice. 

I’ve learnt a new lesson!

In future, I must keep in mind: Always check both motorcycle tyres thoroughly before going out or this is what I would undergo. AGAIN??? NOT ANYMORE!!! 

Port Dickson Holidays Presented Me My New Habit

Who could ever suppose my excitement and pleasure going holidays in the state of Minangkabau, Negeri Sembilan Darul Khusus recently was actually more than a mere vacation. There weren’t the popular tourist destinations that made my holidays more than momentous – yet of course, in a word, the holidays were just fun! Hope to go sightseeing to the state again someday.  

Over my 24-hour stay in the district of Port Dickson (I only travelled for less than 48 hours), things have made a difference on me right after looking at several books on a shelf. You can be thinking that I was in a book shop or shopping complex at that time but I’m sorry…your assumption seems completely wrong. I was only in a sundry shop near the Military Museum. It’s just a mile away of my Uncle’s apartment.

Alright, now let’s go back to the main topic, the books. I saw the book titles which quite made me feel like shopping them all and starting to read each one of them. More importantly, the books have made me ‘awake’ from something I’ve been always taking for granted.  It’s reading habit.

What a waste! I’ve been thinking of all the cash I’ve spent previously. Where on earth have I spent all the money to? Did I invest the money as wise as I should? Oh my, I just find out I’ve already wasted plenty of it like hell!

I’m such an idiot!

What I’ve seen is chances! Yup, chances….chances to get as many books as possible. They’re all sold at the market every day. The first step I ought to take is get some books there and then read them up. And, everybody knows that books will never let you down, will they? They constantly bring you full of knowledge and useful information. They help you gain knowledge and keep you updated at all times. Indeed, I’m not too much to point out that they’re the best companions ever! Are you all with me? Please raise your hand. TQ.

I firmly believe it’s never too late to mend, anyway (and I’ve turned to a new leaf, syukur). I’m so lucky that my GSTT income hasn’t been banked yet. Impatiently waiting for PDD to bank into my account ASAP. Hurry up, then! So, I’ve made up my mind to benefit some of the whole income for books. What do you say? Erm… wait! What books do I wanna buy? Aha… nice question. I’ve dreamt of having a book written by Donald Trump, an American millionaire. Don’t pretend as if you don’t even know him. I would get his book whether it’s being sold in the city. Last time I saw it somewhere in Kinokuniya, the most well-known bookstore in the Capital City. Very disappointingly, I haven’t found one so far.  [Sigh]

Reading is highly encouraged by Islam in the surah Al-alaq, verses 1-5. The first ayat is ‘Read in the name of your Lord’. Please help yourself to the rest of the surah. On top of that, the consciousness of the significance of reading has led the government in collaboration with the National Library in Kuala Lumpur to have been doing so many things such as motivational campaigns and not forgetting commercial breaks on TV in the hope of encouraging the community to do a great deal of reading. It is hoped that Malaysians will be aware of the essentiality of reading.

Not only that, in 2002, Malaysians were entertained with the song ‘Membaca Gaya Wawasan’ published by Canang Adcalls Sdn Bhd. The ‘reading’ song was sung melodiously by Malaysian top-notch artistes like Siti Nurhaliza, Fazley Yaakob, Sarimah Ibrahim, Nazrey Johari, Dayang Nurfaezah and a few others. The aim is to foster the whole society to take a book and read as in the lyric. Check this out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ewd6HglZiY

Well… I’m pretty sure that everybody realizes that reading is undeniably beneficial. Even a small kid does! But then, what’s the point of saying so if reading is still not your habit? We aren’t all bark and no bite, are we? From now on, let’s make reading our today’s lifestyle, shall we?